The United States Appeal Court for the 4th District has given judgment in favour of Nigerian-born international human rights lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe, in his defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) concerning the alleged international disinformation campaign against him.
Emmanuel Ogebe had instituted an action against the American news medium for defamation in 2018 alleging that WSJ had been procured by the President Muhammadu Buhari regime to tarnish his image over the Chibok school girls he sponsored to the US in exchange for special access.
In the course of the trial, WSJ journalists and co-defendants Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson published a book on the Chibok abductions.
When hearing resumed after Covid’s disruption of the case, the US District Court dismissed the action alleging that Ogebe had not filed a response to a Motion to Dismiss.
Ogebe however appealed to the Court of Appeal claiming the lower court had been serially incompetent, inconsistent, and out of touch with procedure and evidence in the case.
In its verdict on 23 January 2023, the Court of Appeal declined to delve into the merits of the substantive case but noted that the US District Court for Eastern Virginia had indeed omitted several key procedural elements.
The Appeal Court, therefore, vacated the judgment of the lower court and remanded it back for proper hearing.
“This is a very significant victory for us. The very fact that the Appeal Court agreed to overturn the judgment of the lower court without asking us to argue the appeal is instructive of how bad the lower court was. As the court rightly stated in its brief opinion, the facts were very clear from the appellate briefs filed and needed no further argument, “Ogebe said regarding the victory.
“Ironically the American con man the Buhari regime used for this Wall Street Journal hit-piece, Doug Wead was buried a year ago this month. Lies are sprinters but the truth is a marathoner. Aisha Alhassan in the Nigerian defamation suit has also died but regardless, they and their living accomplices will face justice divine or human.”
This is the second legal victory for the human rights lawyer this year.
Two weeks ago, an Abuja high court dismissed two motions by the Attorney General of the Federation seeking to terminate the defamation lawsuit by Ogebe against the Federal Government over his sponsorship of Chibok girls to America.
According to Ogebe: “Once this US case finally proceeds, the world will ultimately see how a corrupt Nigerian government conspired with unprincipled journalists in America to sabotage a humanitarian for politics and for profit. The lies are so blatant and obvious that this will be a textbook case on journalistic unprofessionalism and media malpractice by a supposedly top American newspaper.”